Sunset Ridge Elementary

Sunset Ridge Elementary is one of the cozy K-5 schools in Pacifica, California, one of the schools within Pacifica, with 348 students on its rolls from grades K through 5. That puts it 25% below the typical public school in California, which averages around 465 students.

Sunset Ridge Elementary is one of 7 schools operated by Pacifica, a district that enrolls 2,640 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Sunset Ridge Elementary lists that the most-represented group is Hispanic (38%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups; the rest is composed of 23% Asian, 19% White, 17% multiracial, 2% Black. That is considerably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 25%.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 18 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 19.3:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. About 42% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, On a poverty-adjusted basis, Sunset Ridge Elementary sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 54.7%; actual is 31.4%, a gap of -23.3 points.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for San Mateo County indicate median household earnings sit near $158,855, 54% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. Sunset Ridge Elementary is one of 176 public schools in San Mateo County (combined enrollment of about 82,403 students).

The closest other public school is Ocean Shore Elementary, roughly 0.6 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Sunset Ridge Elementary at 7th of 7; the average score across the group is 51.3%.

Geographically, the school is in a suburban area.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Sunset Ridge Elementary has ticked down 34%, going from 528 students in 2018 to 348 in 2025. The Asian share of enrollment declined from 33% to 23% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio tightened from 22.0:1 in 2018 to 19.3:1 today.

Inside the community feed, posts here usually surface around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.